DMA in Win XP

T

training42

1
I just installed PowerDVD on my new Win XP computer. It brought me to a prompt to enable DMA in both my disk drives. Is it best to have DMA enabled for viewing DVD's, and for burning CD's? I am using Clone and Nero and can't find anything about what those programs prefer. Windows help briefly explains DMA, so I don't understand why viewing a DVD is better with DMA enabled when this bypasses the CPU.
Thanks
 
woody

woody

1
Yep.Always enable DMA for your drives if possible.It won't be mentioned with most software.Most newer drives require DMA to be enabled for best performance.;)
 
*ChRiS

*ChRiS

1
I tried my DVD without DMA and the sound jumped every 10 odd seconds... so there you go, I dont think activating DMA munches away at your main CPU performance either. Just hit Ctrl+Alt+Del click Performance and check if need be :)

The one and only...
 
dx

dx

1
Just to be clear...the advantage of DMA (Direct Memory Access), is when it's enabled your computer's processor is NOT accessed...thus the drive bypasses the CPU. This can free up CPU resources when multitasking or utilising very CPU intensive applications.

Thus you can help accelerate the transfer rate of your drive by enabling DMA if it supports it (most modern devices do ;) ). Consult your drive's manual to be sure.
 
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